A letter from Virginia, January 1864

I recently had the privilege of doing some research at the Perkins Library at Duke University in Durham. It has, I am told, the largest collection of unpublished Confederate manuscripts in the world. I had only a day and could barely scratch the surface, but I can tell you there’s a lot there. Duke is a beautiful campus, but like many others the traffic is bad and parking next to impossible. Once you get in, however, the staff is friendly and helpful.

Just as a sample here is a letter from a North Carolina officer to his brother in January, 1864, giving a candid assessment of the war and prospects of peace.

A soldier’s life, in time of war, is the roughest existence possible; and it is an indisputable fact that we, of the Army of Northern Virginia, experience great hardships as any soldiers ever did. No man in this whole army of 40,000 men can say, with truth, that any part of his previous life was not preferable to his life here. Therefore, when all men agree that this is the most miserable state of existence that can possibly be, there must, of necessity, be something hard and particularly uninviting about it. The people at home seem to be considerably discouraged about the war, and a great many, I understand, are in favor of peace on any terms. It is probably needless to say that if the question were put to the vote in the army, the vote for peace would be “stupendous”! The privates, as a general thing are decidedly sick and tired of it, and one or two officers are beginning to desire a small affair of peace and quiet. It is rather discouraging to reflect that while we are suffering all that men can suffer, the people at home are almost ready to back out and give up the business. It is painful for a man to think that he must suffer and die for a cause that may be rendered execrable by a “reconstruction” at some future day. … Now with the army half-fed, badly clad, and almost entirely bare footed, with the people down-hearted and sighing for any peace, and with a stubborn administration and an incompetent Congress – what’s the prospect? Not very brilliant perhaps!

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2. 861aj: Confederate ArBack to the George Nafziger American Civil War Order of Battle Collection

                    Confederate Army of Shenandoah                           30 June 1861  Commanding Officer: Brigadier General J.E.Johnston  1st Brigade: Colonel T.J.Jackson      2nd Virginia Infantry Regiment      4th Virginia Infantry Regiment      5th Virginia Infantry Regiment      27th Virginia Infantry Regiment      Pendelton's Battery 2nd Brigade: Colonel F.S.Bartow      7th Georgia Infantry Regiment      8th Georgia Infantry Regiment      9th Georgia Infantry Regiment      Duncan's Kentucky Battalion      Pope's Kentucky Battalion      Alburtis's Battery 3rd Brigade: Brigadier General B.E.Bee      4th Alabama Infantry Regiment      2nd Mississippi Infantry Regiment      11th Mississippi Infantry Regiment      1st Tennessee Infantry Regiment      Imboden's Battery 4th Brigade: Colonel A. Elzey      1st Maryland Infantry Battalion      3rd Tennessee Infantry Regiment      10th Virginia Infantry Regiment      13th Virginia Infantry Regiment      Grove's Battery Not Brigaded:      1st Virginia Cavalry Regiment      33rd Virginia Infantry Regiment  J.G.Nicolay, The Outbreak of the Rebellion, New York, l901 

   Source: George Nafziger Order of Battle Collectionmy of Shenandoah 30 June 1861
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